Five Kenyan amateurs will be in action during the fourth edition of the Magical Kenya Ladies Open starting at the Par 73 Vipingo Pidge PGA Baobab course today.
Of the five, Chanelle Wangari will be the first to set foot on Africa’s only PGA-accredited golf course, where the crème de la crème of Ladies European Tour (LET) will engage in a four-day 72-hole stroke-play event.
The 2022 Kenya Ladies Open Amateur Stroke-Play Championship winner is one of the fastest-rising Kenyan lady golfers at the present.
She will be golfing again in her second career MKLO this week with one objective—to exorcise the ghosts of the “Ridge” and secure the all-important cut that eluded her last year.
Chanelle was well on course for her maiden cut in her MKLO debut last year but her hopes went up in smoke on the par-5 7th after hitting a tee shot into a nearby swimming pool.
She went on to record a 4-over score, and eventually finished on a 12-over par score after two rounds which wasn’t sufficient to propel her to the next level.
Chanelle will tee it up from the tenth tee in Game 12 (at 8:07am) in the company of Moscow-born Russian Nataliya Guseva and Lisa Pettersson from Sweden.
Naomi Wafula will be the second Kenyan to tee off in the fourth edition of the tournament in Game 15 from 8:40am. The top Kenyan lady will kick start her campaign from the tenth tee in the company of Australian Kirsten Rudgeley and Norwegian Madelene Stavnar.
Wafula, a Vipingo Ridge’s PGA Academy star student, became the first Kenyan to ever make the cut at a Ladies European Tour event after returning a score of 3-over par, 76, in Round Two of last year’s MKLO.
Her second day results elevated her gross score to nine-over par 155, earning her a commendable slot to play through the weekend.
Wafula finished 56th out of 96 in last year’s MKLO and went on to play in 3 LET events and 4 Ladies European Tour Access series events in Europe and UK from June to August 2023.
This year will be Wafula’s fourth appearance at the prestigious event, having failed to make the cut in 2019 and 2022.
MKO is the only women’s professional golf tournament in East Africa which has attracted a field of 108 golfers from around the globe,
Another Kenyan amateur Mercy Nyanchama is drawn in Game 17 and will tee off at 9:02am from the tenth tee in the company of Sofie Nielsen and Filipino Samantha Bruce.
Jacqueline Walter, a resident golfer and a product of Vipingo Ridge’s PGA Academy, hopes to leverage her familiarity with the Vipingo Ridge course to post a better outing at the tournament this year after missing last year’s cut.
Walter is in Game 34 and shall tee it off at 13:16 from the tenth tee with Elina Nummenpaa (Finland) and Norwegian Dorthea Forbrigd.
The last Kenyan will start from the tenth tee at 9:13am alongside Maria Hernandez (Spain) and Dorota Zalewska (Poland).
